More than a decade ago, screenwriter, director and producer Lawrence Kasdan attended the annual Hopwood Awards Program as a University student who received four awards. Today he is the guest speaker for award recipients at this year's Hopwood awards ceremony in Rackham Auditorium at 3:30 p.m.
Kasdan will deliver his lecture following the awards presentation by Prof. Nicholas Delbanco, the director of the Hopwood Awards Program.
This year marks the 68th annual Hopwood Writing Contest, which was initiated by Avery Hopwood. Awards will be given for drama/screenplay, essay, novel, short fiction and poetry.
The contest was extra competitive this year - with only 26 winners selected from a total of 211 manuscripts from 156 contestants. The contest is awarding a total of $80,500 in prizes.
"I was surprised to win but elated; I know all the contestants are talented writers," said Inci Sayman, an English graduate student instructor and double award winner. Sayman is receiving a Hopwood Major Award in short fiction and the Andrea Beauchamp Award. While working as a GSI, she found time to enter four short stories in the contest.
Many student contestants said they entered for various reasons.
"The essays were actually all from English classes," LSA senior Cara Spindler said. "Prof. Sieber's 'Issues in Criticism' class the winter of '98 was incredible. He encouraged us to make the essay from something new, and I loved writing this paper."
Spindler, a poetry subconcentrator, won Hopwood Minor Essay and Hopwood Minor Poetry awards. "Now that I've actually finished my thesis, I look back at the Hopwood manuscript and see all these things that I wanted to change," she said.
"The prestige of the awards and the money involved made me decide to enter," Sayman said, adding that she intends to put some of the award money into a retirement fund and has plans to travel to Europe this summer or visit friends around the country.
Events linked to Kasdan's visit will be offered free to the public. Kasdan plans to attend the events with his producer, Charles Okun, and Meg Kasdan, co-screenwriter of "Grand Canyon."
There will be three events after the ceremony. At 7:30 p.m., a screening of "Grand Canyon" will be held at the Michigan Theater. Tomorrow there will be two discussions - "Professional Opportunities in Filmmaking," at 10 a.m. and "The Art of Film Making: from the Writer/Director/Producer Perspective," at 2 p.m..
04-20-99
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